‘Stories emerging of mass food waste are almost incomprehensible’

Food waste should be tackled with the same kind of urgency as the Amazonian forest clearance. While recent climate change reports have targeted the reduction of livestock numbers, slashing food waste could have a very significant and faster impact.Reports show if food waste was a country, it would be the third largest carbon emitter after the US and China.

Food producers have to make plans months, if not years, in advance, while consumers may make theirs in seconds. Stories of waste are almost incomprehensible.

After a wedding in Ireland, co-ordinator of the EPA’s Stop Food Waste Programme, Sarah Broderick, discovered an entire wheelie bin of food waste.

One story of many from America is of farmer, Cannon Michael, who last year left over 100 acres of ripe cantaloupes unharvested. The price he was going to be paid would not cover the cost to pick, pack and transport them to the market.

However, while the focus up to now has been on direct food waste – thrown away or lost from field to fork – new research suggests that pales into insignificance compared to the food lost through eating excess calories, an aspect that has previously been largely overlooked.

“Food eaten above physiological needs, manifesting as obesity, should be considered as waste,” according to researchers in Italy. They point out that the obesity burden in western and developing countries has more than doubled in the past decade. More than 1.9 billion adults and 41 million children under the age of five are overweight.

With this in mind, they created a new index, called Metabolic Food Waste, which calculates the ecological impact of obesity in terms of carbon, water and land usage.

“Excess bodyweight corresponds to roughly 140 billion tonnes of food waste globally,” according to Prof Mauro Serafini of the University of Teramo. Direct food waste is estimated at 1.3 billion tonnes annually.

The report calls for the food industry to be made more accountable, as “they’re not just killing us, they’re ruining the planet as well”.

Overweight or obese people greatly outnumber those who are hungry – 815 million. The UN has stated that, if global food waste was reduced by just 25pc, there would be enough food to feed all of those who are malnourished.

An increasing number of initiatives are focusing on reducing the amount of food wasted. In emerging economies, solutions include evaporative and solar powered coolers, and crop storage bags called PICS (Purdue Improved Crops Storage). Food storage is not generally a problem in the developed world, yet far more food is wasted. The reasons for this are doubtless many, but among them is certainly that food has never been so readily available and so cheap.

But efforts are being made here also. Among many projects, FoodCloud has already directed 50 million meals to needy people rather than into waste.

Meanwhile, a Wasted Supper Club, using food from local restaurants and businesses, will take place next Friday evening at GROW HQ in Waterford as part of the city’s Harvest Festival.

GROW HQ is well known from the TV series, Grow Cook Eat, which is the headquarters of the not-for-profit GIY movement.

The event marks the announcement of GROW HQ as the Irish action hub for the Chef’s Manifesto, a global network of chefs working to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This includes focusing on ingredients grown with respect for the Earth and its oceans, protection of biodiversity and improved animal welfare, and the celebration of local and seasonal food.

Source ? The Irish Independent